New MOT/service before part exchanging car

Ella_fella

Ectophile said:

The only book value a garage is going to be interested in is what they can sell it for.  And that assumes it's fully prepped.  So serviced, MOT'd, dents and scratches fixed, alloys refurbished and any problems sorted.  If you offer them a car with a short MOT that needs a service, they will take that into account when deciding what to offer.

This is the dilemma I have which is probably not singular to myself......would the amount they knock the car down with a short MoT outweigh the cost any potential failures.....and the only way of knowing that for sure is taking my car for a service/inspection prior to the MoT which will then come off the bottom line if it doesn't throw anything up.

Am genuinely in a quandary as to what the best course of action is. 

paul_c123

Unless you yourself are as competent as an MoT tester (and have the same facilities) you don't know if your car will pass, or which advisories will be picked up. Thus, there is an element of risk with a short MoT car. Age/mileage increase that risk. So you'd be paying (in reduced trade in value) for that. Alternately, you might put it in for MoT hoping to get more and the cost of the work is higher than the increase in value. This obviously depends on what prices you can get parts and your labour rate (or the rate you have to pay someone else).

BlueHarbourBouy

if its a Ford  Ecoboost engine you would be advised to get rid of the car ASAP, If  it has  got a wet cam belt it can   disintegrate, blocks the oil filter and the engine fails. A new cambelt cost about £1k  which has to be changed as part of the servicing  -Google Ford Ecoboost problems